Philosophical Heart Warming Seductress Shiznit

I went to a Christian school for 7 years. This is why I am so angelic and sweet in my ways ( I know you've noticed!). At the school there was a huge old tree. It's branches were thick and reached out to hug the blue skies. The leaves fluttered like 10,000 butterflies disturbed into reckless flight in a flowered pasture. It had stood witness to so many things, flourishing in the diversity of the years. You could find a few names carved in it from years gone pass, a reminder of fledgling love, tattooed in nature.

Most of the upper class protected this tree and warned the younger classes against harming it in any way. We respected it's grandness and appreciated what it gave to us:

A KICK ASS ROPE SWING!!!!

(and shade and history and air and yada- yada- yada- but mostly):

A KICK ASS ROPE SWING!!!!

Thinking back now on that little school family, it was as it should be, older kids looking after the younger and everyone taking responsibility. At every break we lined up at the tree. The older boys took turns being "the pullers" and they always swung according to age and ability.

Now let me explain something about this tree swing to you.

It would NEVER be found in ANY schoolyard these days for safety reasons!

It was a very dangerous item to have around a bunch of adventure thirsty kids. It's rope was tied securely on a top branch so high you could barely see it. The branches were cleared for maximum height potential. It was a round red thick wood disk threaded with a huge rope and a few head sized knots for climbing up on and white knuckling for your life when the boy's felt you were old enough to fly.

And we did fly

We were smart enough to know the danger of a crooked or too strong whip of the swing. We were intuitive enough to know who could not handle the "power" pulls. We loved each other and protected each other from the certain death of dis-respecting this swings power.

There were invisible lines drawn in the dirt you knew not go pass when the swing was in operation. There were kids responsible for watching the youngsters (but no one was given specific tasks, it just got done). It was a well oiled event every time the bell rang.

That would not happen these days. people are too selfish. I really do feel we all watched the ones ON the swing and enjoyed their "flight" as much as our own.

Thinking back on it, I grew up a little each time I climbed on that red disc (and yes it WAS a climb). Feet with untied shoe laces dangling in the air of anticipation. Putting my face to the wind, hair freely mingling with rays of sunlight, the screams of my school family below me like music jumping off speakers.

It was a freedom I have not experienced in adult life. I wish I could go back and take a spin on that tree swing today. Let all these worries wash away in the wind, singing out the scream of a child, in the silent world of an adult.

Today, let's "fly" in our imaginations back to a moment as a child where "freedom" was first tasted. Let that sweet taste get us through this day with a smile and hope for many more moments of wonder to be experienced *as a child would* pure and full of magic.

And remember:

A moment of wonder is what you make it, it comes freely, it is not orchestrated with money, it happens when you let it, when you close your eyes and let it encompass you.

The little moments each day that define us

Take flight with me!